On Feb. 20, an anonymous student at the University of Illinois arrived at Carle Hospital at 1 a.m. and requested a sexual assault kit. 

In a mass email, the incident was reported as fondling on Feb. 21, but a follow-up Campus Safety Notice on Feb. 24 said it was a rape at an unnamed fraternity house.

Just ten days later on March 4, the campus community received another notice from University Police Chief Matt Ballinger that another sexual assault involving a controlled substance occurred at a fraternity house that morning. Campus police records showed the fraternity was Zeta Beta Tau on South Fourth Street, but it was not included in the safety notice. 

A few days later, university police notified campus that another student was sexually assaulted by a person unknown to them at midnight on March 8 at an unnamed fraternity. 

The daily crime log classified the instance as a rape and the location as a “non-campus property.” While this log only shows the past 60 days of crimes, CU-CitizenAccess.org has collected over 16,000 entries since Jan. 1, 2019. 

Then an unnamed student was also sexually assaulted by a person unknown to them at a Champaign fraternity house one month later at 2 a.m. on April 9.

These are the four latest. Campus police have alerted the community to four other criminal sexual assaults at fraternity houses since January 2023, totaling eight reported to campus authorities since then.

Furthermore, at least 33 sexual crimes have been reported at unnamed fraternities since 2019, campus crime log data shows. 

Abbigail Kepp, communications coordinator for the university’s Division of Public Safety, said the decision to disclose the address of a fraternity, sorority or residence hall in a notice largely depends on the crime committed.

“If we send a Campus Safety Notice about a recent burglary or robbery, we are more likely to disclose the address and location name,” Kepp said via email. “However, if the [notice] is about a sexual offense, we will most likely exclude the address and location name to protect the victim’s identity.” 

The Interfraternity Council presides over 3,700 men in frats enrolled at the university. When asked about the recent string of reported crimes, a representative said the council does not condone or tolerate sexual violence.

“The IFC recognizes that collective, proactive efforts are crucial in preventing and addressing sexual misconduct,” the council said in an email statement. “We maintain a commitment to building relationships with university partners and campus resources to address such issues.”

Of course, fraternity houses are not the only locations where incidents of sexual misconduct have occurred on and around campus. Since 2019, crime log records show 482 reported sexual crimes on or near campus — including but not limited to rape and aggravated sexual assault.

Nearly half were crimes classified as rape, totaling 238, which included 23 different crime descriptions. 

In just 2024, there were 74 reported instances of sexual crimes at both on- and off-campus properties compared to 54 in 2022. This includes crimes such as criminal sexual assault and rape.

Kepp added that campus police take every report of sexual violence seriously and investigate each instance to the fullest extent. 

“Our year-by-year crime statistics are similar to those of peer institutions, and we work diligently with campus and community partners to investigate crimes, hold offenders accountable, support victims and participate in educational risk reduction efforts,” Kepp said in an email. 

In the university’s 2024 Sexual Misconduct Campus Climate Survey Report, 63% of respondents said they strongly agreed or agreed that they felt safe from sexual harassment on campus. Illinois law requires higher education institutions such as the university to administer the survey every year.

The federal Clery Act requires the university to collect and report crime statistics and issue timely warnings, also known as safety notices, on crimes that represent an “ongoing threat” to the campus community. 

The daily crime log falls under this compliance, which allows the public to see all reported crimes in the university area in the past 60 days. The information for this database comes from multiple sources, but officials receive confirmation from law enforcement reports, Campus Security Authorities or student discipline reports.

Furthermore, such notices use Clery geography jurisdiction, and those reports don’t always provide exact, if any, addresses of incidents.

The Annual Fire and Security Report, which includes all crimes reported to Campus Security Authorities and other local law enforcement agencies, falls under the Clery Act requirements for public universities. 

This disclosure of statistics classifies crimes by hierarchy, meaning that each incident is only counted once even if multiple crimes occurred. However, sex offenses are an exception. If a rape and other severe crime occurred at the same time, both would be disclosed.

The report data shows the University of Illinois has actually decreased in overall reports of rape, with 25 in 2023 compared with 37 in 2022. However, reports increased for this crime in on-campus student housing facilities and stayed the same in on-campus properties from 2022 to 2023.